took over the Cruj’ most powerful stronghold. In many ways the new masters of Meledrakkar were far, far worse. They didn’ t seek to alter the subterranean ecology out of experimental interest or coy malice, nor did they intend to build an empire.
All the new masters of the Netherwere wanted was money. Money, and more money, and they didn’t care who or what they had to kill or destroy to take it. Where the Cruj would sometimes let life flourish if it’s continued existence piqued their curiosity or provided a favorable variable to one of their experiments, the new lords of Meledrakkar — Black Scar, they now called it — were nowhere near so amiable or forgiving. In their own way, these humans were even m ore monstrous.
They were T he Revengers. And there was no escaping their wrath.
Danica’s eyes strained against the dark. She rode atop a platform on the back of a Razorwing that slowly fl ew down T he Way. Miles of frost — wracked stone lay behind them. The air rushed past her and lashed her face with tiny snow crystals.
Her skin was frozen. She was on her knees, with her arms bound behind her back. Her dark armor was stained with blood, dirt and ice dust. Blood had crusted to her forehead, and her skin was filthy with grime. Her body ached with fatigue. Tears stung her eyes.
“Oh, stop crying,” Burke said from the front of the platform. “T ears don’t suit you, you heartless bitch.” He turned and looked at her. “We both know what you did while you were here, Danica Black. We both know what you’re capable of. Don’t play like you’ve suddenly grown a soul.”
Danica said nothing, because she knew that he was right.
The platform of wood and steel was wide enough to house a contingent of Revenger guards and a handful of prisoners, with enough space to s ecure each passenger to the deck with chains. The entire contraption was secured to the back of the Razorwing, one of many such giant draconic creatures purchased at a discounted rate from the Ebon Cities. Each Razorwing was controlled by a warlock or witch who formed a special telepathic bond with the creature using a strange parasite provided by the Ebon Cities ’ beast handlers. The parasites grew in pa irs, and one was affixed to each the mage’s and the Razorwing ’s necks, which allow ed the stronger-minded of the duo to exert control over the other. Lucky for T he Revengers, Razorwings weren’t terribly intelligent.
Burke, Raven, six armed sentries, the warlock pilot, a pair of leath ery undead and two more warlock wardens stood guard over their prisoners: Danica, Lara Cole, and the unconscious body of Eric Cross.
You stupid bitch, she told herself. You couldn’t have messed things up any more than this.
She looked at Cole. Cole wouldn’t look back at her.
It had been two years since they’d last seen each other, when they’d barely survived the Battle of Karamanganji. Black had aban doned T he Revengers, stolen prisoners and gone to hell and back to save Cole’s life, but in the end that still wasn’t enough to erase their romantic difficulties. Danica still wasn’t entirely sure what had happened between them… things had seemed fine. Lara had always had some difficulty reconciling Black’s career choice, but Danica made sure she got out and saw Lara as often as possible, and they were very careful to make sure that nothing about their relationship in any way violated prison protocol or put either of them in danger.
They used to drink and go out on the town, carouse and shout and have fun, stay out late and sleep in later, get into trouble and never look back.
Danica might have saved Cole’s life, but by that point Lara had already saved Danica ’s soul. When the nightmares that the prison g ave Danica had all but destroyed her, Cole’s love and companionship pulled her back out of the darkness. Lara was so exciting, so joyous to be around, so full of life.
And then, one day — just a few weeks before Cradden decided to kidnap her so as to force Danica to give him valuable prisoners — Cole told Danica it was time for them to move on, and that she didn’t want to see her anymore.
Is this a second chance? Black wondered.
She looked at Cross. She’d betrayed one person she loved in a desperate bid to save the other.
You didn’t have much of a choice, she told herself. They would’ve tortured and killed you both. And they still might.
Danica felt like she’d swallowed freezing water. Her skin chilled as a gust of black wind sliced down the enormous tunnel. The platform on the Razorwing’s back creaked loudly. Everything shifted beneath her, and it was only the chains around her wrists that kept her from rolling into the air as the massive reptile twisted and flew deeper into the bowels of the earth.
Danica’s stomach lurched. The Way was so vast she couldn’t see the bottom. Black rock stretched over their heads, endless miles of stone reamed in ice and shadow. Outcroppings appeared out of the gloom like granite phantoms.
The Razorwing ducked beneath a massive stalactite, an iron and stone watch post that hung suspended from the endless ceiling. Rotating chain guns turned and tracked the reptilian flier. Gargoyles silently hovered through the air. The inverted tower hung over a giant fissure that ran up the face of the wall like a wound. The flaw led from one behemoth cavern to another.
Black Scar waited on the other side of the crack. The s ight of it always took Danica’s breath away. I ts dismal grandeur was awe-inspiring.
She always knew she’d return. It had somehow seemed inevitable.
Steel towers stretched out across the cavern. Pillars of dark fire roared to wards a ceiling so tall it might have been the sky. The air tasted like sweat and iron. D istant and d ark walls glowed in the blaze of furnaces. C rystalline f laws in the stone shone like false daylight in the gloom. Thick iron shields built over natural fissures helped maintain the cave’s stability.
The cavern stretched for over two miles in either direction. At its center stood an underground city made of cold iron, black structures molded together to form an edged metropolis.
The central Black Scar complex sat at the nexus of it all, a dome of pitted steel surrounded by needle-like towers webbed together with crackling electric-thaumaturgy. Circling blasts of cold ene r gy cast the ceiling in ghostly light. Grinding machines echoed and crashed in the distance. Droning Razorwings cried out, and their strangely hollow voices echo ed like tortured cries.
The prisoner population of Black Scar was l ocked within the iron walls, guarded by rotating watchtowers covered with ball turrets and arcane trebuchets. They lived in squalor in a tight arrangement of prison buildings, tiny structures packed like honeycombs and locked down around the clock. Those few prisoners visible on the grey lanes were chained together and held under careful watch by more of the gaunt wight — giants. Yet more of the undead stood on the towers and on the walls, their grinning skull visages unmoving, their cold white eyes glowing like torchlight.
The diamond mines were to the west, a scar in the rock. Danica saw streams of workers ushered in and out of the wide opening to the mines, their skin red with dust. Gouts of explosive vapors erupted from the open shafts and paint ed the air in a bloody haze.
Mechanical dreadnaughts strode through the city, faceless automa tons built like massive tin men with motorgun arms. Swivel- mount ed cockpits sat where the heads should have been, and they hous ed Revenger pilots who kept a careful watch on the metropolis of prison structures.
Black cables ran between the taller buildings. S pirit unguent race d along lines of iron wire. S trands of arcane energy crackle d and fe ll in sparks of electric rain.
“He’ s looking forward to seeing you, ” Raven said. She smiled at Danica. Danica didn’t say any thing. She didn’t even look at the Revenger, and after a moment the woman turned away.
“Lara,” she said.
“I’m sorry, Dani,” Cole said. She was crying. “I’m sorry.”
“Shut up,” Raven said coldly. Burke laughed.
T he Razorwing dipped down and flew beneath hex wires and razor ed turrets. Hot wind from the furnaces blasted up into Danica’s face, and when flame s poured from one of the central factories she went blind for a moment from the blazing white light. S he had to blink several times before her vision returned.
The reptile landed on an elevated steel p latform surrounded by a low barbed fence that had been decorated with human hair. The likeness of a black skull had been painted in the middle of the platform.
A number of leathery undead sentries armed with bladed rifles and hatchets stood at attention. The Razorwing folded in its wings and flattened itself down. An iron staircase was rolled up to the platform on the reptile’s back. Black and Cole were led down.
